A Little Story Behind A-Rod's Walk Off Blast

Unless you haven't turned on your TV, visited a sports website, are under a rock, or even a boulder, you know by know that Alex Rodriguez has hit his 20th homer of the season, a walk-off against the Boston Red Sox in the bottom of the 15th inning at Yankee Stadium early Saturday morning.

Five hours and thirty three minutes of baseball that started Friday night, finally ended at around 12:40 am EST on Saturday morning.

Here is my little story behind a big story...

First off, let me start off by telling you how big of an A-Rod supporter I have been in my life. Through the thick and thin, my close friends know that I support number thirteen no matter what.

I have supported Rodriguez since I was a youngster in Middle School and playing baseball, at 25 now, I don't play much baseball, but still look up to him the same way. I had to do a lot of soul searching after the steroid admission, but I have since put it on the back burner and focused on the task at and, the 2009 Yankees season.

Last May, I got a NY insignia tattooed on my right shoulder with a number thirteen underneath it, making it official that no matter what, this is my player.

With all of that being said, I work a retail life, around fifty hours a week, at a South East Grocery chain.

As of January, I was promoted into management into a local store near my house. Last month, we got a new store manager because of certain moves and reasons, and he is from Rhode Island and a huge Boston Red Sox fan.

His managers office is decked out with Red Sox photos, Patriots photos, and Celtics photos. To some, a nice office, but to me and certain people I know, a horrible site to see.

Deep down, we probably don't like each other, but we have to work together and well, he is my boss. I respect him and keep my mouth shut.

After Thursday nights 13-6 bashing of the Red Sox, I went into work Friday and we both worked the same shift, 12 PM to close. I didn't say a word about the game, but I did wear my Yankees tie. I do have a small rule, and that is not to talk smack until its November and my team has cashed in. There is still a lot of baseball left.

We made a pact to each other to not to look at the score and turn off of cell phones, and we did. We walked out of the store together tonight at 11 PM, not knowing that the game was tied up and scoreless.

While we walked towards our vehicles, he saw my Honda Civic and said, well this has got to be your car, and I guess the Yankees/Alex Rodriguez tag gave it away. I have a custom tag that I made that has the Yankees logo on it and below it, "A-Rod 13".

He followed by saying, "no one would be caught dead with that tag, that guy will never hit in the clutch."

I get home and get freshened up, crack open a beer, and watch the game.

After fast forwarding through the commercials, and watching all of our missed opportunities, I was beginning to get frustrated. I sped through most of the later innings, trying to watch all of the big pitches on my DVR and Burnett was just dealing.

I reached the end of my recording in the bottom of the 12th and immediatly escaped out of it back to live TV.

Alex Rodriguez is up to bat on my TV screen, back to real time.

A single pitch off the right hand of rookie Junichi Tazawa, Alex Rodriguez ended the game and ended so much pain inside of my heart.

It was a long time coming, and he finally proved that he belongs on the Yankees and can perform when it counts. Yes, it was just a regular season game, but this can really go a long way and carry him and the Yankees a long way.